UFC 126's Jake Ellenberger says questionable judging out of his hands

UFC 126's Jake Ellenberger says questionable judging out of his hands

http://mmajunkie.comJake Ellenberger is not about to point fingers at the judging process following his split-decision victory over Carlos Eduardo Rocha this past Saturday at UFC 126.

One scorecard curiously had Ellenberger losing all three rounds of the fight despite several takedowns he completed late in the game.

But while Ellenberger doesn’t agree with the tally, he said it’s his responsibility to make sure the judges never come into play.

“I need to work on finishing fights, and you can’t leave it up to the judges,” he said after UFC 126.

The two tangled on the main card of the pay-per-view event, which took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

It was not the fight Ellenberger (24-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) had anticipated, both literally and figuratively. Rocha (9-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) dominated the action early on with a dangerous submission attack, and at times, it looked like Ellenberger was floundering under the pressure. The first round clearly was not his.

The rest, though, seemed comfortably in the 25-year-old Nebraskan’s pocket. Ellenberger eventually found his feet, where he pressured the Brazilian before going returning to bread-and-butter wrestling skills to put the fight where he wanted.

“Rocha’s tough,” Ellenberger said. “He proved that he was tough, and he hung in there. We were here to fight.”

Ellenberger previously had been scheduled to meet perennial contender Jon Fitch at the Feb. 5 event before Fitch was rebooked to face former champion B.J. Penn at UFC 127. The split decision was his third victory inside the octagon and extended his winning streak to three. Rocha, meanwhile, suffered his first professional loss.

Judges Abe Belardo and Junichiro Kamijo scored the fight two rounds to one for Ellenberger while Adalaide Byrd scored all three frames for Rocha. Byrd’s score drew puzzlement from UFC commentator Joe Rogan, a frequent critic of the judging process in MMA.

“I didn’t agree with that (score), but my job is to fight,” Ellenberger said.